AOTCE: What or who influenced your interest in the arts?

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Kimberly: I can’t say that I was influenced towards the arts I've been an artist all my life.  All my family are artist, my uncles, my aunts, my cousins, all of us are in the arts.  Uncle Ira was a jewelry designer, my aunt Sylvia was a plein aire painter, my dad was a dental surgeon/designer, his brother, twin brother Uncle Herbert was an interior designer and ceramic artist, Uncle Bill concert pianist, Uncle Donald award winning photographer.

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AOTCE: So, it was a natural progression for you.  Did you ever consider doing anything else?

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Kimberly: Absolutely, I think that artist that don’t do anything else make boring art. I started in school as a religious studies major and continued to be interested in metaphysical and other kinds of spiritual studies from around the world.  I was a museum president and CEO for 25 years.  I ran a grants program at the Pennsylvania Council for the arts, I used to head up a mural program.  I think artists have to be fully engaged in society, I think they always have been. The idea of being alone in a garret is a modern idea and I don’t think it’s a very useful one.

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AOTCE: Can you talk about your museum experience?

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Kimberly: I actually began my museum experience creating an experimental gallery at the Smithsonian Institution.  It was a gallery that experimented with the way exhibition are presented to the public.  So we focused on exhibition design, interruptive strategies, context, materials used to mount shows, phycological as well as physical access issues, all of those things.  We mounted three kinds of exhibitions, we mounted original exhibits that attempted to experiment, we remounted exhibitions that were successful experiments and we tested exhibition components before they went into fully realized shows. 

Anyone could submit an exhibit idea whether they were inside of the Smithsonian or whether they were an office worker in San Francisco.  We did the first exhibition at the Smithsonian, maybe the first one, I don’t know, of people dealing with AIDS. We did the first exhibit at the Smithsonian with bilingual labels where the translations were not directly related to each other.  We had an amazing time.

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AOTCE: Do you continue to make art?  If yes, what motivates you.

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Kimberly: Yes, I still make art, I never stopped.  I always do.  

I’m a painter and  a dollmaker. I think in the past week, I’m actually having a blast. 

I made about 20 dolls for the gallery for Christmas and working on new a series of

ceramic pieces, along with having 5 paintings on the easels in my studio. 

So, I work all the time. I never stop, even when I was working in the museum field

I had a duel career and I have to say that it’s not about motivation.

It’s about having an ongoing dialogue.  The election has had a major, profound implications

on my work.  I’ve been working in ceramics, almost every day, and my fingers are dried to

the bone, but it just soothes me, and so I just keep working, why not.

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AOTCE:  Art is a fluid part of your everyday existence.

Did you have a preferrence over your art vs being a Museum CEO?

 

Kimberly: I don’t see one part of me being separated from another part.  

I ran institutions the same way I created art and I always told people

during interviews that if they needed a formal, linear supervision that

they probably would not enjoy working for me. 

I think what I’m saying is, this process of how my mind works and

analyzes and organizes things and you really cannot separate one from the other.

Which is why I say artist should be deeply engaged in the world in which we live,

the old masters that people often talk about, Michelangelo had an artisan in churches

program, he ran atelia etc., etc. So, it’s important for artist to be fully engaged.

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AOTCE: Can you talk about your gallery?

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Kimberly:  I continue to run the gallery.  But since I retired from the museum field 2011, I do the gallery full time but I also consult with organizations on leadership transition, strategic planning, and board development.  And I’m also still doing evaluations for the America Alliance of Museum Assessment program.  The American Alliance for Museum has peer review evaluations, it helps museum gain their accreditation.  And so I travel around the country, doing those on req

est because they are peer review sessions.  I do them in every aspect from audience, marketing, board development and art collections care.

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AOTCE: Evaluations, meaning?  This subject is so behind the scenes and our readership may be interested in knowing more.  Can you add or elaborate?

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Kimberly: The museum accreditation process is a peer review process, that shows or that proves, that museums are engaged in best practices around all of its operations.  Evaluators over a series of years look at everything from financial management, to marketing, demographic service to the community, collections care, board development, staff qualifications.  All of the aspect of a museum that people don’t see.  You’re right it behind the scenes, a lot of people think that museums are just about putting objects out and putting the lights on.  It is far more complex than that and particularly in our community.  We tend to not really understand the museum profession as a career path. Our involvement in museums is something that strengthens the quality of our institutions.  It’s one of the reason’s last year that I created a new undergraduate degree program at Lincoln University in museum studies because less than 2 percent of the museum field, is people of color.  We also tend to be the lowest in percentage of a museum's attendance and we also have the least amount of knowledge or understanding about arts administration and museum administration.  The accreditation process is funded by the Institute for Museum and Library Services, which is a federal program, and is coordinated by the American Alliance for Museums.

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AOTCE:  What artist in today’s environment, do you see as on the cutting edge? 

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Kimberly: Dawoud Bey is one of my favorite artist. (Dawoud Bey is from New York and is a photographer, born in 1953)

 

Kimberly: I love Mickalene Thomas (born in 1951 is a multidisciplinary artist).  A painter, photographer, and filmmaker, born in New Jersey and currently lives and works in New York. 

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AOTCE: This information will help others to see and know that there is a need for others in the arts beyond what is usually visible, the artist.

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Kimberly:  Absolutely.  The visual art seems to be the only field where practitioners are discouraged from understanding the business of their own career.  The graduate course that I taught at Drexel University (in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)  last summer focused on managing visual arts organizations and we even included a class on art handling safety which most artist don’t get when they’re in school.  So, yes I’m the full picture I talk about behind the scenes in front of the scenes I make art I sell art I couch younger artists, I represent younger artist.  I think the last census indicated there were approximately one and a half million visual artists in the United States and those are only the people that identify as such.  Out of those there are thousands that are exceptional and I think that is something that people need to understand.

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AOTCE: So, you are actively engaged in bringing younger people on board.

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Kimberely:  Asolutely, I just had a wonderful conversation with one of my former students at Lincoln University who I think is an up and coming star. And The latest lecture that I’ve has been doing has been on Albert Barnes (an American physician, chemist, business man, art collector, educator and the founder of the Barnes Foundation in Lower Merion, Pennsylvania) and African American and that is something that I’m offering for next year as a class in my gallery and as an independent lecture. 

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AOTCE: What would you tell a young person starting out in the visual arts in terms of getting their work seen?

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Kimberly:  I would tell young artist when it comes to their art being seen they must be “present”.  Artist need to show up on time and be ready.  Networking is critical.  When you make a connection, follow through with it.  The most important advice is to not take yourself so seriously, life is short.  Artist are compulsive.  We’re going to make art regardless and so look at that in terms of your prices and understand that you can actually sell work to people that they will enjoy and you can go on a vacation every now and then.

AOTCE:  Can you talk about the importance of grants?  In terms of museum exhibitions.  Is it important to secure sponsors for travelling shows for example Kehinde Wiley?

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Kimberly: You can aspire to do the five and six figure sales or you can also focus on selling art to just regular ordinary everyday people the other 99% of the people.  There are very few resources to travel anything. You must work with institutions in order to get grants.  Most of them disappeared in the early 90’s after the last wave of George Bush Sr. trying to eliminate the Arts Council and succumbing to the religious right which once again we are seeing.  You have to build an audience

build a reputation and when you meet someone who has good connections, maintain that connection. Sometimes that can be as simple as sending somebody a Christmas card and a post card when you travel and just saying hi, was thinking about you, I would love to chat with you soon.  When you get a business card, follow it up and what younger people need to understand is that people with influence right now are “baby boomers” and we don’t do all of this social media stuff.  We are still very much more into talking to people on the phone and hand writing notes.  Sending an email, doesn’t do it.  If you want to be impressive, the personal touch is most important.sure that when we use terms to define our work that we’re not doing the same thing as people that have unhealthy social attitudes.